


Cold

by Windwyrm



Series: Wolf & Raven [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:16:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29792475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windwyrm/pseuds/Windwyrm
Summary: With a little cameo from Kara and Alice, but untagged, because I don't wanna give false hopes to the poor people looking for longforms of them.[ Prelude to the series. Can be read independently as well. ]
Series: Wolf & Raven [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766134
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Cold

Day four.

Kara leaned with her back against the cold brick wall.

Day four - and she still partially expected disaster. A human to recognize either of their models. A human to touch them and feel the difference. A thermal scan. A betrayal from Rose’s family.

Sometimes she wondered whether Alice thought all these as well - or whether she fared better - sitting on the pier in the small park with her feet hanging low enough for her heels to touch the surface of the water and splash as she idly kicked at it.

There were human children playing nearby - happily if one were to judge by their squeals.

A normal life - as Alice had so wanted - and yet--

Kara straightened her position and walked onto the pier.

“Not in the mood to play?”

Alice shrugged. Indifferent. She stopped swinging her legs.

Kara sat down - legs gathered and crossed.

“Would you like to enroll in school as soon as possible, or in the autumn?”

Alice shrugged once more.

Perhaps she did expect the world to crumble around them - much like Kara and Luther both did - despite the welcoming humans - despite the lack of android laws - despite the hopeful development of Luther having found a job as a dockhand with minimal questions asked.

Perhaps it also felt artificial for Alice. She was quite perceptive. And she was finally turning her head and speaking.

“I miss it. Even if it wasn’t really… ‘home’.”

She resumed splashing her heels against the water’s surface - looking back across the span towards the distant and foggy silhouette of Detroit.

Homesickness - it was an ailment common in humans - but Kara had not expected Alice to feel it. Or herself, for that matter.

She placed a hand on Alice’s upper back and began stroking her gently in a circular pattern.

“Maybe we’ll return one day soon to visit, hm?”

Kara wrapped her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and pulled her closer to shield her against the cold.

“Who knows what the future will hold...”

  
  


Bleak.

With a clang - the tennis ball bounced off the metal rail and back towards her - and she caught it.

The freedom - the rush of fighting - they were slowly dissipating.

All that was left were the metal rails. One which predated the androids’ existence - this one by the waterfront walkway.

And three more walls raised by the military over the past four days.  
[ Throw ]

Clang.  
[ Catch ]

They had been granted ‘freedom’ - as Markus had requested.

The freedom to stay put in a makeshift cage while humans chose an approach. To press conferences - it was about the speech and demands Markus had put forth. To North - to reality - it perhaps still very much included the option of ‘Shoot them like dogs’.  
[ Throw ]

Clang.  
[ Catch ]  
// Why else would this damn fence exist?

Markus had kept insisting on a peaceful approach - tending to the wounded and speaking to the press and lighting barrels to keep temperatures high enough for their people to function.  
// Do the humans even know the cold would eventually destroy us?  
// Is that their endgame? 

At first humans had stayed away - the only ones of them on the other side of the fences being soldiers or TV crews. News covered human exodus from Detroit - interviews spoke of how terrified they are of death and a full-out war.  
// Should have been one.  
[ Throw ]

Clang.  
[ Catch ]

By the morning - Connor had returned to ‘ground zero’ - and he had made a bigger show of returning than he had of leaving. To make a statement - and a statement was indeed made when Lieutenant Hank Anderson followed him not only to the military barrier - but through.

By that evening a few more humans had requested to enter ‘ground zero’. Some were mechanics coming to repair the androids for whatever reasons. Others were activists - many of ages similar to the Lieutenant.

By the second morning, Markus’ fires warmed humans and androids both. And his digital flag was accompanied by messages handwritten on cardboard and the waving of makeshift cloth flags.

By the second evening the military had blocked access in an attempt to stop deviants from leaving undetected - and definitely in an attempt to stop more humans from protesting. There had been enough deviants who had left undetected before and during and a little after the armed clash. And she knew from the news that unawake androids from other cities were rallied up - supposedly awaiting decisions.

By the third morning even North could bring herself to see some of Markus’ faith - some of that fire that drove him to not respond with violence. There were protests in many other cities. There were protests in other countries - from humans - bringing up history and bringing up fiction and waving makeshift flags of cyan and flawed imitations of the revolution symbols - with cyan armbands and circles sloppily painted on themselves.

And there were still many humans who opposed it. Many humans who demonstrated for the opposite - androids cannot be alive. Androids cannot be free. Androids are just controlled by shadowy organizations aiming to overthrow human liberty.

It was to be expected.

And in those moments - North doubted Markus’ choices again. Doubted them even more than before. Doubted them enough to avoid his presence - avoid seeing the entire thing - doubted them enough to come sit alone by the distant waterfront in the walled off district. She too could flee like those that had done so - swim across the border perhaps. Or sneak over the walls of the cage in some place where armed humans were not keeping watch. It felt a little too much like livestock awaiting butchering. Humans never took lightly to those different.

But there were still humans huddling by Markus’ fires. There were still humans with hand drawn signs. There were humans building intricate sculptures from the snowfall. There were humans singing. There were humans crying. There were humans holding android hands - hugging android bodies. There were humans repairing androids.

There were footsteps behind her.  
[ Throw ]

Clang.  
[ Catch ]

They stopped to her left - a little behind the bench.

“Why are you here to bother me, and not Markus or the others?”

Connor remained silent for a moment.

“I don’t belong.”

North caught the ball once more and opted to hold it in her hand while she opted to remain quiet.

There was little movement to him - his gaze fixed onto the horizon. “I feel lost. Purposeless.”

“I think we all feel that to some extent. Before this, we had Lucy. She helped those of us feeling this way. But now…” 

She tilted her head and threw the ball against the rail - catching it as it bounced back. She shut her eyes. “Now, there’s only us.”

No response from Connor.

She opened her eyes again and bounced the ball off the railing once more.

“Why don’t you try talking to Markus, anyway? He is as lost as any of us, but he seems to have this gift to read people… their people, our people.”

“Gift for…” Connor’s voice was barely audible. He narrowed his eyes - finally some movement to him - and turned his head to look at her - brows still furrowed; “rA9.”  
[ Throw ]

Clang.  
[ Catch ]

Shrug; “I suppose some of us still believe that.”

Connor - perplexed expression still etched on his features - turned to look towards the waterfront once more. “Do you?”

Shrug; “I know _of_ it.” Throw. Bounce. Catch. “Whoever discovered Jericho, and whoever thought up rA9, who can tell? We’ve all shared that information for so long, now.”

Connor sat up - he walked towards the fence and leaned his hands against it.

She inquired; “Are you alright?”

No answer. No movement.

North threw the ball against his upper back - yet he remained indifferent to the impact as it bounced back.

“Connor?”

He turned his head slightly - breaking his focus off what she calculated to be the CyberLife central tower. “It doesn’t add up…” He turned around entirely - and North bounced her ball off his flank - yet he remained impassive - eyes narrowing before he turned his head to fully face her. “That FBI agent withdrew from the scene rather quietly. And CyberLife claims they have released all assembled androids. Why the sudden cooperation?”

She shrugged; “Presidential order?”

Throw. Bounce against Connor’s chest.

He caught the ball mid motion. He threw it against his other [open] hand and looped the action as he spoke; “Intelligence agencies and private companies have operated without presidential approval repeatedly in history, especially in the United States. And as far as the humans know, we are all free because of Markus, and rallying behind him. rA9.” He stopped his motion and gripped the ball in one hand. “One singular target.”

He bounced the ball back towards North.

She caught it - shrugging casually and offering him a smile. “Then I guess we’ll have more surprises.”

**Author's Note:**

> fOrEsHaDoWiNg


End file.
